Thanks again to the Minister for those comments and the commitments. The Territorial Farmers Association is another partner I can think of that reports that access to land is indeed one of the major challenges facing its members. Will the Minister, perhaps in consult with his colleagues, commit to contacting the association and identifying the issues and opportunities to be addressed, and reporting to EDI with a plan for recommended measures? I recognize that this could also become part of the greater Economic Development Strategy, but I think I’d like to follow that track as well Thank you.

I’ve had the opportunity to sit down with the Territorial Farmers Association for a meeting, and I look forward, at the earliest opportunity, to meet with them again as we advance the Economic Development Strategy. I think we will be leaning heavily on organizations like the Territorial Farmers Association for that level of expertise and knowledge when it comes to agriculture here in the NWT and how they feel the government could help out in that regard. Certainly, they will be a part of this as we move forward. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Ramsay. Your final, short supplementary, Mr. Bromley.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Thanks to the Minister. Really we are talking food security here as well as an economic function. I know we are addressing these things and Anti-Poverty Strategy and other aspects, but food security is really about lower costs. This weekend our local

chicken cooperative would have ended up calling out the roosters. We had to go to sources in Ontario to find out questions we needed answered. Given solutions needed to involve many departments in a strategic cross-departmental approach to food supply, will the Minister commit to development of a food strategy as an integral element of our strategic plans to fight poverty and promote economic development? Mahsi.

Mr. Speaker, again, as we move forward, I think whether or not we need a food strategy per se or to be part of a larger piece like the Economic Development Strategy or many of the other support mechanisms that the department has for locally produced food and agriculture in the NWT, it certainly is something worth some consideration, though. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Ramsay. The honourable Member for Range Lake, Mr. Dolynny.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Earlier today I used the fictitious CBC TV show Arctic Air to depict an issue about emergency response. It has been a reality. In reality, this is actually happening in the Northwest Territories. With that, my question who won the coin toss is the Minister of Municipal and Community Affairs. Has there been a working group established? Have the fire chiefs been involved? Is there work to be done with the Northwest Territories Association of Communities and work with other departments such as Health and Social Services on creating some type of archway, some kind of health profession or a trade for emergency medical service providers providing some type of equality in our systems of emergency services throughout the Territories? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Dolynny. The honourable Minister of Municipal and Community Affairs, Mr. McLeod.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. There had been a working group that had been established. MACA is part of the working group. Health and Social Services is part of a working group. We do have some assistant fire chiefs that are part of the working group. We are looking at the overall delivery of emergency services across the Northwest Territories. Thank you.

Mr. Speaker, it is encouraging to hear that this is indeed a priority of the government and a priority of the department. Could the Minister indicate as to when the consolidated findings of this working group will be shared with committee here and the Members? Thank you.

Mr. Speaker, the intent is to have something by December of this year that

we could possibly share. Obviously, there is a lot of work that needs to go into this to make sure we get a product that best serves all the people of the Northwest Territories. By December of this year, we are hoping to have something that we can have a discussion with committee about. Thank you.

Mr. Speaker, as indicated in my Member’s statement earlier today, some of the earlier planning back in 2009 projected this could cost the taxpayer or the government up to $6 million to perform. Can the Minister advise if this number has been looked at? Are we close to this number or is it too far down into the future to actually predict? Thank you.

Mr. Speaker, $6.1 million was the initial figure that we used. Once we go through all the planning, the number may rise. We would have to look at all the options and then come back to committee with what probably is closer to a final figure and share that with them, and then we will determine what the next steps are going to be once we do that. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. McLeod. Final, short supplementary, Mr. Dolynny.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, very encouraging news. I think people listening out there feel that their needs are being met. Until such time as we have policies in place, we have budgets in place, there are communities out there that are in dire need. They need medical transport vehicles to avoid patients being transported in the back of quads, in the back of pickup trucks. Is there any appetite for this department or the government to look at the needs of individual communities, assess them, and do more good now than waiting for some projected budget in the future? Can we assist these communities in the near future? Thank you.

We do have some right now that we allocate to some communities that apply for it. It helps them with equipment mostly. We have to understand that there’s a huge liability issue in trying to provide emergency service in a lot of communities. If they’re not qualified, then that would put more residents at risk and put the communities or the individuals in a liability issue. So we have to explore all those options.

There is $200,000 now that is allocated to a number of communities. As the Member said, we only have three communities that have taken us up on it, but a lot of this is to help with some of the equipment they have in communities. Of course, we want all of our residents to be sure that they’ll be transported to health centres safely and the Member pointed out something that he saw on TV, which is actually not far from the truth. We’ve heard of cases of people being transported in the back of a vehicle, but that’s just the community responding

to a situation. Instead of just waiting for something to happen, they make something happen.

So, again, there’s a huge liability issue and we have to recognize that. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. McLeod. The Member for Frame Lake, Ms. Bisaro.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My questions are addressed to the Minister for Human Resources today. I’d like to ask the Minister with regard to a report of the Standing Committee on Government Operations from reviewing the 2009-10 Annual Report of the Information and Privacy Commissioner. At that time both the Information and Privacy Commissioner and the office of the Auditor General had recommended transparency in government, and particularly with regard to funding of dollars within government. It was a recommendation of that report in May of 2011, over a year ago, that this government be proactive and disclose employees, senior management salaries. So I’d like to ask the Minister of Human Resources why it is that we do not publish our senior employees’ salaries. Thank you.

Thank you, Ms. Bisaro. The Minister of Human Resources, Mr. Abernethy.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I was actually on Government Ops when that report was done. In the Government of the Northwest Territories there are three levels of pay for executive managers: EM1, EM2, EM3. EM1 runs from $162,000 to $202,000. EM2 goes from $180,000 to $225,000. EM3 is $198,000 to $247,000. This is as of April 1, 2011.

I have directed the department to post those on-line. They will be posted on-line similar to all other salaries for all GNWT employees. Thank you.

Thank you to the Minister for being so proactive. I appreciate that that’s going to be posted and I hope the Minister will advise when that’s going to happen, but will employees be identified by their salary range? The Minister mentioned three salary ranges. So if I’m interested in a particular employee in a department, will I be able to figure out which salary range he or she falls into? Thank you.

Thank you. I have directed the department to post it on-line the same time we post the current and the new UNW, NWTTA and senior management, do them all at the same time, which should be done as soon as we have ratified the final agreement, the UNW Collective Agreement. So that should be really soon.

No, we won’t be posting individuals’ salaries. That would be inappropriate and against the conflict of information. But that would be consistent with what we do for all employees. We don’t tell anybody what Jane or John Doe in any other profession makes, so why would we do that for our senior management? Thank you.

Thanks to the Minister. I wasn’t referencing a specific individual’s salary, but whether it would be possible to find out what range the individual falls into. So do I fit into EM1, 2 or 3?

The other issue that was recommended by the standing committee report from a year ago had to do with employee bonuses. So I’d like to ask the Minister whether or not employee bonuses will be published the same as senior management salaries. Thank you.

Thank you. With respect to the individual positions that my colleague is talking about, there’s only about 17 positions that fall into these executive management bands and if we started identifying what positions follow what bands, would be really actually identifying what the individuals make and that would be inappropriate. So we won’t be sharing that information. We will only be sharing the ranges.

With respect to what an individual receives as a bonus, we won’t be telling anybody what an individual receives for a bonus, but the policies and protocols for how bonuses are identified is public information and we can release what we paid in a year in bonuses, but not by individual. Thank you.